Is Barack Obama's nose growing? He said he did not campaign on the public option. Hundreds of news clips and archival print stories beg to differ. Is he President Pinnochio, or is he a victim of presidential alzheimer's? What is it about the White House that makes their occupants forget their campaign promises. We thought Obama would be different, but apparently not.
Now that the albatross Senate health care bill has passed, the only hope for us is the conference committee and that Nancy Pelosi's team remains strong for the middle class. The taxes on group health plans, the mandate without a public option, the ruinous cuts in medicare for home health care and hospice that are in the Senate bill must be done away with as a matter of conscience.
Obama care has turned into Obama Doesn't Care with the passage of the Senate UN-Health Reform Bill. Let us pray that he finds again the compassion he seemed to show in his campaign for the office. A legacy of broken promises is not a good way to start his presidency. If he finds that compassion for the middle class again, then it will be a happy New Year.
'
In spite of the gift of a very bad Senate bill, we wish you dear readers a Merry Christmas -- remember, JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON and WISE MEN AND WOMEN STILL SEEK HIM!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Keith Olbernan is Right -- the Mandate Must Go -- Obama is Accomlishing the Opposites of What He Promised Those of Us Who Voted for Him!
After eleven months in office, Barack Husseien Obama is going down as a president who did not keep his promises, but also a president who is accomplishing EXACTLY the opposite of what he said he would do.
He is the anti-war candidate who has us deeper in war. He has done nothing in Iraq that President Bush had not only promised to do. And Obama has increased the troop levels in Afghanistan by over 50,000 troops.
Yes, he is the only Nobel prize winner who has ever won the prize and then increased troops in a war. But that is exactly what he had done.
He is the Trojan horse president. We elected him to do one thing, but he is doing the other, in so many cases.
He was elected to bring honesty to the White House, yet he defends the Bush torture techniques and the Bush secrecy policies. And he was elected to bring health care reforem and his SENATE bill is just a big, mandated payout to the insurance companies.
WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT TO THE ONES WHO VOTED FOR HIM! How much better is he in reality than McCain, if at all?
He promised not to raise taxes on the middle class, yet his health care niil, without a public option to help keep costs down, has a huge tax cost.
The Joint Committee on Taxation has published a list of the 17 tax increases in the Senate health care bill, which are estimated to raise $370.2 billion in revenues over ten years:
1.40% excise tax on health coverage in excess of $8,500/$23,000 ($149.1 billion)
2. Employer W-2 reporting of value of health (negligible revenue effect)
3. Conform definition of medical expenses ($5.0 billion)
4. Increase penalty for nonqualified health savings account distributions to 20% ($1.3 billion)
5. Limit health flexible spending arrangements in cafeteria plans to $2,500 ($14.6 billion)
6. Require information reporting on payments to corporations ($17.1 billion)
7. Additional requirements for section 501(c)(3) hospitals (negligible revenue effects)
8. Impose annual fee on manufacturers & importers of branded drugs ($22.2 billion)
9. Impose annual fee on manufacturers & importers of medical devices ($19.3 billion)
10. Impose annual fee on health insurance providers ($60.4 billion)
11. Study and report of effect on veterans health care (no revenue effect)
12. Eliminate deduction for expenses allocable to Medicare Part D subsidy ($5.4 billion)
13. Raise 7.5% AGI floor on medical expenses deduction to 10% ($15.2 billion)
14. $500,000 deduction limitation on taxable year remuneration to health insurance officials ($0.6 billion)
15. Additional 0.5% hospital insurance tax on wages > $200,000 ($250,000 joint) ($53.8 billion)
16. Modification of section 833 treatment of certain health organizations ($0.4 billion)
17. Impose 5% excise tax on cosmetic surgery ($5.8 billion)
Talk about TAX and SPEND -- but the ones who get rich are the insurance companies!
As Keith Olberman, as honest a man as there is on television, put it recently, the mandate to buyr insuracne, without a public option, is a terrible thing. He called for its repeal from the already atrocious bill.
Olberman warned Obama: "Mr. President, they are calling you a socialist, a communist, a Marxist. You could be further to the right than Reagan – and this health care bill (as Howard Dean put it here last night, this bailout for the insurance industry) sure invites the comparison.
"And they will still call you names.Sir, if they are going to call you a socialist no matter what you do, you have been given full unfettered freedom to do what you know is just. The bill may be the ultimate political manifesto, or it may be the most delicate of compromises. The firestorm will be the same. So why not give the haters, as the cliché goes, something to cry about.
"But concomitant with that is the reaction from Democrats and Independents.
You have riven them, Sir. Any bill will engender criticism but this bill costs you the left — and anybody who now has to pony up 17 percent of his family’s income to buy this equivalent of Medical Mobster Protection Money.
"Some speaking for you, Sir, have called the public option a fetish. They may be right. But to stay with this uncomfortable language, this bill is less fetish, more bondage.
Nothing short of your re-election and the re-election of dozens of Democrats in the "house and senate, hinges in large part on this bill. Make it palatable or make it go away or make yourself ready — not merely for a horrifying campaign in 2012 — but for the distinct possibility also of a primary challenge."
Olberman continued: "There is only one redemption possible. The mandate in this bill under which we are required to buy insurance must be stripped out. The bill now is little more than a legally mandated delivery of the middle class (and those whose dreams of joining it slip ever further away) into a kind of Chicago stockyards of insurance. Make enough money to take care of yourself and your family and you must buy insurance – on the insurers terms – or face a fine.
"This provision must go. It is, above all else, immoral and a betrayal of the people who elected you, Sir.You must now announce that you will veto any bill lacking an option or buy-in, but containing a mandate."
This is a harmful bill, this Senate monstrosity, and we must pray that it is killed before it does much harm. It is not reform, it is not healthy and it is not ethical. The Senate bill with the mandate must be defeated, if not in the Senate, then in the House.
Health care reform that benefits the industry at the cost of the people is intolerable and there are no moral constructs in which it can be supported. Kill the bill tomorrow morning, for our children and our children's children.
He is the anti-war candidate who has us deeper in war. He has done nothing in Iraq that President Bush had not only promised to do. And Obama has increased the troop levels in Afghanistan by over 50,000 troops.
Yes, he is the only Nobel prize winner who has ever won the prize and then increased troops in a war. But that is exactly what he had done.
He is the Trojan horse president. We elected him to do one thing, but he is doing the other, in so many cases.
He was elected to bring honesty to the White House, yet he defends the Bush torture techniques and the Bush secrecy policies. And he was elected to bring health care reforem and his SENATE bill is just a big, mandated payout to the insurance companies.
WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT TO THE ONES WHO VOTED FOR HIM! How much better is he in reality than McCain, if at all?
He promised not to raise taxes on the middle class, yet his health care niil, without a public option to help keep costs down, has a huge tax cost.
The Joint Committee on Taxation has published a list of the 17 tax increases in the Senate health care bill, which are estimated to raise $370.2 billion in revenues over ten years:
1.40% excise tax on health coverage in excess of $8,500/$23,000 ($149.1 billion)
2. Employer W-2 reporting of value of health (negligible revenue effect)
3. Conform definition of medical expenses ($5.0 billion)
4. Increase penalty for nonqualified health savings account distributions to 20% ($1.3 billion)
5. Limit health flexible spending arrangements in cafeteria plans to $2,500 ($14.6 billion)
6. Require information reporting on payments to corporations ($17.1 billion)
7. Additional requirements for section 501(c)(3) hospitals (negligible revenue effects)
8. Impose annual fee on manufacturers & importers of branded drugs ($22.2 billion)
9. Impose annual fee on manufacturers & importers of medical devices ($19.3 billion)
10. Impose annual fee on health insurance providers ($60.4 billion)
11. Study and report of effect on veterans health care (no revenue effect)
12. Eliminate deduction for expenses allocable to Medicare Part D subsidy ($5.4 billion)
13. Raise 7.5% AGI floor on medical expenses deduction to 10% ($15.2 billion)
14. $500,000 deduction limitation on taxable year remuneration to health insurance officials ($0.6 billion)
15. Additional 0.5% hospital insurance tax on wages > $200,000 ($250,000 joint) ($53.8 billion)
16. Modification of section 833 treatment of certain health organizations ($0.4 billion)
17. Impose 5% excise tax on cosmetic surgery ($5.8 billion)
Talk about TAX and SPEND -- but the ones who get rich are the insurance companies!
As Keith Olberman, as honest a man as there is on television, put it recently, the mandate to buyr insuracne, without a public option, is a terrible thing. He called for its repeal from the already atrocious bill.
Olberman warned Obama: "Mr. President, they are calling you a socialist, a communist, a Marxist. You could be further to the right than Reagan – and this health care bill (as Howard Dean put it here last night, this bailout for the insurance industry) sure invites the comparison.
"And they will still call you names.Sir, if they are going to call you a socialist no matter what you do, you have been given full unfettered freedom to do what you know is just. The bill may be the ultimate political manifesto, or it may be the most delicate of compromises. The firestorm will be the same. So why not give the haters, as the cliché goes, something to cry about.
"But concomitant with that is the reaction from Democrats and Independents.
You have riven them, Sir. Any bill will engender criticism but this bill costs you the left — and anybody who now has to pony up 17 percent of his family’s income to buy this equivalent of Medical Mobster Protection Money.
"Some speaking for you, Sir, have called the public option a fetish. They may be right. But to stay with this uncomfortable language, this bill is less fetish, more bondage.
Nothing short of your re-election and the re-election of dozens of Democrats in the "house and senate, hinges in large part on this bill. Make it palatable or make it go away or make yourself ready — not merely for a horrifying campaign in 2012 — but for the distinct possibility also of a primary challenge."
Olberman continued: "There is only one redemption possible. The mandate in this bill under which we are required to buy insurance must be stripped out. The bill now is little more than a legally mandated delivery of the middle class (and those whose dreams of joining it slip ever further away) into a kind of Chicago stockyards of insurance. Make enough money to take care of yourself and your family and you must buy insurance – on the insurers terms – or face a fine.
"This provision must go. It is, above all else, immoral and a betrayal of the people who elected you, Sir.You must now announce that you will veto any bill lacking an option or buy-in, but containing a mandate."
This is a harmful bill, this Senate monstrosity, and we must pray that it is killed before it does much harm. It is not reform, it is not healthy and it is not ethical. The Senate bill with the mandate must be defeated, if not in the Senate, then in the House.
Health care reform that benefits the industry at the cost of the people is intolerable and there are no moral constructs in which it can be supported. Kill the bill tomorrow morning, for our children and our children's children.
Tax the Middle Class, Save the Rich -- the DEMOCRAT SENATE Plan in the Health Care Bill
"Though the American left and right don't agree on much” Columnist Frank Rich over the weekend, "they are both now coalescing around the suspicion that Obama's brilliant presidential campaign was as hollow as Tiger's public image."
Hooray for Frank Rich's frankness! I am sorry to say I am one of those with such a suspicion. Where is the Barack Obama we all voted for? Where is the fire in his belly for defending the middle class? He is not the same man as he was last fall.
Now, using the selective memory that old fashioned politicians have always used ( we thought he was different), Mr. Obama says that 95 per cent of what he wanted is in the Senate Bill.
Really, Mister President? Are you sure you want to make such a claim when we have your speeches and campaign material all over the internet still?
Well, if you insist on saying such a thing, Mr. Obama, people will surely say things about you.
Where is Representative Joe Wilson when you need him? Some folks like him might say “You Lie!”, but I will be generous and just say, “Your memory is not precise, sir.”
EzrA Klein of the Washington Post and others have talks of Obama's promises. A look at campaign promises shows that these are things on health care that Obama promised, but failed to deliver:
1. Public option
2. No individual mandate
3. Drug re-importation
4. Government coverage of catastrophic costs
5. Employer mandate
6. National, rather than state level, exchanges
And then this horrific bill adds two things that Obama didn’t promise but are in the bill (and note, I agree the delivery system reforms are great improvements, but the case for the excise tax is a big attack on the unions and the middle class that supported Obama in the campaign).
1. Excise tax
2. Delivery system reforms
Yes, the Senate Bill is LOADED with taxes, bright shiny new taxes for many people. The Senate bill calls for a nearly $70 billion tax over 10 years on insurance companies, plus a $2 billion-a-year tax on medical devices. Billions of dollars are also meant to be raised from added taxes and fees on wealthier seniors, higher-end insurance plans and tanning salons.
Companies of all sizes have been increasingly burdened by health-care costs, which topped $400 billion in 2007, according to data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Unrestrained, that figure is expected to double by 2017. About 70% of workers receive health insurance through their employers.
Groups representing smaller businesses say the threat of increased taxes and premiums could outweigh provisions intended to limit the impact on small employers. The Senate bill "will not only fail to reduce and control the constantly climbing health-care costs small-business owners face, but it will result in new and greater costs on their business," said Dan Danner, head of the National Federation of Independent Business.
And the excise tax will crush workers and other folks who are on employee group insurance plans. Unions ranging from the powerful AFL-CIO to the National Education Association to the Communications Workers of America are decrying the provision in the Senate health package that would impose a 40 percent "excise tax" on insurance companies for "Cadillac plans" with high-cost premiums.
The unions claim the tax will end up hitting the middle class hard and say Congress should instead use the House-passed idea of simply increasing income taxes on wealthy individuals.The unions are correct. It is a terrible situation. And the Democrats are doing all of this, not the Republicans!
"The health plan excise tax will not let families keep the good health plans they have now," CWA President Larry Cohen said in a statement Tuesday. His group argues that insurance companies will end up reducing benefits to avoid the tax.
Thanks Mister Obama. You are allowing the biting of the hands that pulled the levers for you. And with this monstrous bill you are supporting, you are sealing a defeat for Democrats in 2010, not to mention 2012.
Hooray for Frank Rich's frankness! I am sorry to say I am one of those with such a suspicion. Where is the Barack Obama we all voted for? Where is the fire in his belly for defending the middle class? He is not the same man as he was last fall.
Now, using the selective memory that old fashioned politicians have always used ( we thought he was different), Mr. Obama says that 95 per cent of what he wanted is in the Senate Bill.
Really, Mister President? Are you sure you want to make such a claim when we have your speeches and campaign material all over the internet still?
Well, if you insist on saying such a thing, Mr. Obama, people will surely say things about you.
Where is Representative Joe Wilson when you need him? Some folks like him might say “You Lie!”, but I will be generous and just say, “Your memory is not precise, sir.”
EzrA Klein of the Washington Post and others have talks of Obama's promises. A look at campaign promises shows that these are things on health care that Obama promised, but failed to deliver:
1. Public option
2. No individual mandate
3. Drug re-importation
4. Government coverage of catastrophic costs
5. Employer mandate
6. National, rather than state level, exchanges
And then this horrific bill adds two things that Obama didn’t promise but are in the bill (and note, I agree the delivery system reforms are great improvements, but the case for the excise tax is a big attack on the unions and the middle class that supported Obama in the campaign).
1. Excise tax
2. Delivery system reforms
Yes, the Senate Bill is LOADED with taxes, bright shiny new taxes for many people. The Senate bill calls for a nearly $70 billion tax over 10 years on insurance companies, plus a $2 billion-a-year tax on medical devices. Billions of dollars are also meant to be raised from added taxes and fees on wealthier seniors, higher-end insurance plans and tanning salons.
Companies of all sizes have been increasingly burdened by health-care costs, which topped $400 billion in 2007, according to data from the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Unrestrained, that figure is expected to double by 2017. About 70% of workers receive health insurance through their employers.
Groups representing smaller businesses say the threat of increased taxes and premiums could outweigh provisions intended to limit the impact on small employers. The Senate bill "will not only fail to reduce and control the constantly climbing health-care costs small-business owners face, but it will result in new and greater costs on their business," said Dan Danner, head of the National Federation of Independent Business.
And the excise tax will crush workers and other folks who are on employee group insurance plans. Unions ranging from the powerful AFL-CIO to the National Education Association to the Communications Workers of America are decrying the provision in the Senate health package that would impose a 40 percent "excise tax" on insurance companies for "Cadillac plans" with high-cost premiums.
The unions claim the tax will end up hitting the middle class hard and say Congress should instead use the House-passed idea of simply increasing income taxes on wealthy individuals.The unions are correct. It is a terrible situation. And the Democrats are doing all of this, not the Republicans!
"The health plan excise tax will not let families keep the good health plans they have now," CWA President Larry Cohen said in a statement Tuesday. His group argues that insurance companies will end up reducing benefits to avoid the tax.
Thanks Mister Obama. You are allowing the biting of the hands that pulled the levers for you. And with this monstrous bill you are supporting, you are sealing a defeat for Democrats in 2010, not to mention 2012.
The Senate Health Bill is Very Bad Medicine for America -- May One Democrat Have the Guts to Vote No and Save the Country from a Lethal Mess
It was a scene fit for Satuday Night Live. But it was sad, not funny. The Democratic "leader"ship in the Senate was all in joy as they patted each other on the back today, heaping accolades on Harry "Mr. Sellout" Reid, and I was reminded of a similar situation with the launch of the Titanic nearly a hundred yeats ago. A great iceberg is coming their way, but they are too puffed up and are too busy congratulating themselves to realize it.
Sad to say, the do nothing Republicans are actually right on the Senate bill,
Powerless to stop the bill, Republicans stepped up their attacks, contending the sweeping bill threatened to harm Medicare and add billions to the deficit and lots of taxes on the American people, with an economy already on life support. For once, the party of NO is right.
Thinking Democratic senators should vote NO on this bill that is bad for the middle class and the elderly. Of course,all the thinking Senators have been bought off by Harry Reid and/or the insurance companies that the Democrats in the Senate seem to really represent.
"Tomorrow the Senate will vote on a bill that makes a bad situation worse," Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said on the Senate floor, according to the Associated Press. "This bill slid rapidly down the slippery slope to more and more government control of health care."
The final vote is now set for 7 a.m. Thursday, and that day, if this bill passes, will live in infamy, not with the laurels bestowed on Reid, but with the hurt it will put upon the American people. And Mr. Obama fiddles while the middle class is burning from burgeoning medical and tax debt and sheer legislative abuse.
Sad to say, the do nothing Republicans are actually right on the Senate bill,
Powerless to stop the bill, Republicans stepped up their attacks, contending the sweeping bill threatened to harm Medicare and add billions to the deficit and lots of taxes on the American people, with an economy already on life support. For once, the party of NO is right.
Thinking Democratic senators should vote NO on this bill that is bad for the middle class and the elderly. Of course,all the thinking Senators have been bought off by Harry Reid and/or the insurance companies that the Democrats in the Senate seem to really represent.
"Tomorrow the Senate will vote on a bill that makes a bad situation worse," Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said on the Senate floor, according to the Associated Press. "This bill slid rapidly down the slippery slope to more and more government control of health care."
The final vote is now set for 7 a.m. Thursday, and that day, if this bill passes, will live in infamy, not with the laurels bestowed on Reid, but with the hurt it will put upon the American people. And Mr. Obama fiddles while the middle class is burning from burgeoning medical and tax debt and sheer legislative abuse.
A HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT -- THE SENATE HEALTH CARE BILL NEEDS TO DIE
I am praying that President Obama gets some guts and stands up for what we all thought he believed in when we forked out our money for his campaign and voted for him. Quite frankly, his performance in the health care bill debacle has been far below the stellar quality of his campaign. The White House seems rudderless, and gutless. Maybe David Plouffe, the miraculous campaign manager for Obama, would have been a far better chief of staff than Rahm Emanuel.
Obama seems to want to pass a bill just to say that he passed a bill. But the Senate version will kill the country as it is written -- yet he fiddles away as if it is the Magna Carta. Whatever happened to the Obama pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class? Why the mandate (which is really socialistic government intrusion in a big time way), when there is no public option to hold down costs? It provides legalized robbery for big insurance. Was that the change we voted for?
I voted for Obama, campaigned for Obama and have defended him vehemently for a couple of years. Now I would like him to do something for us, the ones that voted for him -- not the fat cats who voted for the Republicans. It is all so disappointing. Maybe Hillary would have had the toughness to play this game better than he is playing it. It seems he is mainly sitting on the sidelines, watching others play, while Washington burns with a nasty, ineffective fire.
And Harry Reid!? Don't get me started. What a sellout machine! Nancy Pelosi has more fortitude and cahones than Obama and Reid combined. The Senate Bill is a sellout to Ben Nelson and the insurance companies. It is WORSE than the current state we are in -- and I did not think that could be!
The Democrats need leaders, not weak-kneed doormats. The Republicans are horrendous - they do absolutely nothing. But in this case, nothing would be better than the toxic spill that is this Senate bill.
Part of the problem are the antiquated Senate rules -- definitely not fully democratic and surely not right for our times. Just like the electoral college, it makes the whole country hostage to small states and smaller minds. All the lobbyists need to do is pick off a few small state senators and they can write all kinds of "legal" atrocities upon the American people into a bill.
At this rate, the federal government is far from being functional, and it may never be so. Perhaps we would be more effective with a less centralized, state-based system, with only certain things like defense under the federal umbrella. Maybe the Republicans would be for that, and it would be better for the people to have decisions made more locally.
What is sad is that the TEA PARTY crazies were actually right about some things. They went over the top with their protests, but at heart they were right on the way the Senate bill has been constructed. With its abominable cuts in Medicare for the elderly (like hospice and home health care), and its allowing insurance companies to charge up to 300 per cent more for the elderly, it IS AGAINST OLDER PEOPLE in many ways. And it is loaded with new taxes for regular folks. THE SENATE BILL MUST DIE!
Jane Hamsher put it wonderfully at Firedoglake.com:If you read this you will have to contact your Senator to vote against this monstrous bill.
"Top 10 Reasons to Kill Senate Health Care Bill
1.Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations -- whether you want to or not.
2.If you refuse to buy the insurance, you'll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS.
3.Many will be forced to buy poor-quality insurance they can't afford to use, with $11,900 in annual out-of-pocket expenses over and above their annual premiums.
4.Massive restriction on a woman's right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.
5.Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays.
6.Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won't see any benefits -- like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions -- until 2014 when the program begins.
7.Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others.
8.Grants monopolies to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.
9.No re-importation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years.
10.The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of four will rise an average of $1,000 a year -- meaning in 10 years, your family's insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.
Background information on each point:
1.Hardship Waiver And Restrictions On Immigrants Buying Insurance Undercut Arguments For An Individual Mandate, by Jon Walker
2.What's in the Manager's Amendment by David Dayen
3.MyBarackObama Tax by Marcy Wheeler
4.Emperor Ben Nelson: All Your Uteruses Are Belong To Me by Scarecrow
5.The Senate Bill is Designed to Make Your Health Insurance Worse by Jon Walker
6.Best way to "Fix It Later" Is With No Individual Mandate Now by Jon Walker
7.The Senate Health Care Bill is Built on a Mountain of Sand by Jon Walker
8.The Devil in Anna Eshoo's Details by Jane Hamsher
9.Liveblog of the Dorgan Reimportation Amendment by David Dayen
10.Answering Nate Silver's 20 Questions on the Health Care Bill by Jon Walker Senate bill isn't a "starter home," it's a sink hole. It needs to die so something else can take its place. It doesn't matter whether people are on the right or the left -- once they understand the con job that's about to be foisted on them, they agree. That's why Harry Reid and President Obama are trying to jam it through as fast as they can, before people get wise. So email the list to your friends and family, tweet it and spread the word.
Obama seems to want to pass a bill just to say that he passed a bill. But the Senate version will kill the country as it is written -- yet he fiddles away as if it is the Magna Carta. Whatever happened to the Obama pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class? Why the mandate (which is really socialistic government intrusion in a big time way), when there is no public option to hold down costs? It provides legalized robbery for big insurance. Was that the change we voted for?
I voted for Obama, campaigned for Obama and have defended him vehemently for a couple of years. Now I would like him to do something for us, the ones that voted for him -- not the fat cats who voted for the Republicans. It is all so disappointing. Maybe Hillary would have had the toughness to play this game better than he is playing it. It seems he is mainly sitting on the sidelines, watching others play, while Washington burns with a nasty, ineffective fire.
And Harry Reid!? Don't get me started. What a sellout machine! Nancy Pelosi has more fortitude and cahones than Obama and Reid combined. The Senate Bill is a sellout to Ben Nelson and the insurance companies. It is WORSE than the current state we are in -- and I did not think that could be!
The Democrats need leaders, not weak-kneed doormats. The Republicans are horrendous - they do absolutely nothing. But in this case, nothing would be better than the toxic spill that is this Senate bill.
Part of the problem are the antiquated Senate rules -- definitely not fully democratic and surely not right for our times. Just like the electoral college, it makes the whole country hostage to small states and smaller minds. All the lobbyists need to do is pick off a few small state senators and they can write all kinds of "legal" atrocities upon the American people into a bill.
At this rate, the federal government is far from being functional, and it may never be so. Perhaps we would be more effective with a less centralized, state-based system, with only certain things like defense under the federal umbrella. Maybe the Republicans would be for that, and it would be better for the people to have decisions made more locally.
What is sad is that the TEA PARTY crazies were actually right about some things. They went over the top with their protests, but at heart they were right on the way the Senate bill has been constructed. With its abominable cuts in Medicare for the elderly (like hospice and home health care), and its allowing insurance companies to charge up to 300 per cent more for the elderly, it IS AGAINST OLDER PEOPLE in many ways. And it is loaded with new taxes for regular folks. THE SENATE BILL MUST DIE!
Jane Hamsher put it wonderfully at Firedoglake.com:If you read this you will have to contact your Senator to vote against this monstrous bill.
"Top 10 Reasons to Kill Senate Health Care Bill
1.Forces you to pay up to 8% of your income to private insurance corporations -- whether you want to or not.
2.If you refuse to buy the insurance, you'll have to pay penalties of up to 2% of your annual income to the IRS.
3.Many will be forced to buy poor-quality insurance they can't afford to use, with $11,900 in annual out-of-pocket expenses over and above their annual premiums.
4.Massive restriction on a woman's right to choose, designed to trigger a challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court.
5.Paid for by taxes on the middle class insurance plan you have right now through your employer, causing them to cut back benefits and increase co-pays.
6.Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won't see any benefits -- like an end to discrimination against those with preexisting conditions -- until 2014 when the program begins.
7.Allows insurance companies to charge people who are older 300% more than others.
8.Grants monopolies to drug companies that will keep generic versions of expensive biotech drugs from ever coming to market.
9.No re-importation of prescription drugs, which would save consumers $100 billion over 10 years.
10.The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of four will rise an average of $1,000 a year -- meaning in 10 years, your family's insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.
Background information on each point:
1.Hardship Waiver And Restrictions On Immigrants Buying Insurance Undercut Arguments For An Individual Mandate, by Jon Walker
2.What's in the Manager's Amendment by David Dayen
3.MyBarackObama Tax by Marcy Wheeler
4.Emperor Ben Nelson: All Your Uteruses Are Belong To Me by Scarecrow
5.The Senate Bill is Designed to Make Your Health Insurance Worse by Jon Walker
6.Best way to "Fix It Later" Is With No Individual Mandate Now by Jon Walker
7.The Senate Health Care Bill is Built on a Mountain of Sand by Jon Walker
8.The Devil in Anna Eshoo's Details by Jane Hamsher
9.Liveblog of the Dorgan Reimportation Amendment by David Dayen
10.Answering Nate Silver's 20 Questions on the Health Care Bill by Jon Walker Senate bill isn't a "starter home," it's a sink hole. It needs to die so something else can take its place. It doesn't matter whether people are on the right or the left -- once they understand the con job that's about to be foisted on them, they agree. That's why Harry Reid and President Obama are trying to jam it through as fast as they can, before people get wise. So email the list to your friends and family, tweet it and spread the word.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Get a Backbone Transplant, Mister President -- FIGHT THE REPUBLICAN LIARS WITH ALL YOU HAVE! GET US THE PUBLIC OPTION!
President Obama's mealy-mouth approach to the health care crisis has drawn me out of blog retirement to plead with him to get a spine! Please, please, Mr. President, seek medical help. You obviously were born without a backbone. You have shown none in the debate with the shoot to kill Republicans and conservatives in your own party.
Maybe you need some glasses, too. Why else would you be so blind as to seek bi-partisanship with people who have no inclination to do the same with you. You have been like the Hebrew people in the wilderness during this past few months, wandering without purpose, seeking without finding. And it has not been a health care "fight" because you apparently do not have any fight in you.
You make many of us Obama voters wish we had voted for Hillary Clinton. She would be fighting, not always on the defensive. You seem to think if you stay above the fray things will get done. No way! You have got to man up and get tough with the ones who wish for your to fail. Right now, beacause of your timidity, they are winning.
Take a lesson from Lyndon Baines Johnson and fight it out in the trenches on Capitol Hill. He got the country Medicare with tough and tumble power politics -- by playing hardball for the people. He did not wear "mom" jeans to the battle, tiptoeing on tulips of false bipartisanship. He came to win and he was armed to the tilt with srong arm tactics and it worked.
Come on, Mr. President. Unless you learn to fight for what is right you are definitely a one-term president, so why not get your hands dirty and really FIGHT for change we can believe in. You were not elected to maintain the status quo. You were not elected by the REPUBLICANS that you seem to love so dearly. Many of them are racists who hate you and all your were elected to do.
Please, please do something for the progressives and middle class folks that elected you. Be the MAN we thought you were. FIGHT FOR US! Nobody can accomplish as much as you can, if you will just fight for us!
Maybe you need some glasses, too. Why else would you be so blind as to seek bi-partisanship with people who have no inclination to do the same with you. You have been like the Hebrew people in the wilderness during this past few months, wandering without purpose, seeking without finding. And it has not been a health care "fight" because you apparently do not have any fight in you.
You make many of us Obama voters wish we had voted for Hillary Clinton. She would be fighting, not always on the defensive. You seem to think if you stay above the fray things will get done. No way! You have got to man up and get tough with the ones who wish for your to fail. Right now, beacause of your timidity, they are winning.
Take a lesson from Lyndon Baines Johnson and fight it out in the trenches on Capitol Hill. He got the country Medicare with tough and tumble power politics -- by playing hardball for the people. He did not wear "mom" jeans to the battle, tiptoeing on tulips of false bipartisanship. He came to win and he was armed to the tilt with srong arm tactics and it worked.
Come on, Mr. President. Unless you learn to fight for what is right you are definitely a one-term president, so why not get your hands dirty and really FIGHT for change we can believe in. You were not elected to maintain the status quo. You were not elected by the REPUBLICANS that you seem to love so dearly. Many of them are racists who hate you and all your were elected to do.
Please, please do something for the progressives and middle class folks that elected you. Be the MAN we thought you were. FIGHT FOR US! Nobody can accomplish as much as you can, if you will just fight for us!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Wake Up White House! Dr. Howard Dean is Needed In Order to Pass Health Care Reform
Governor Kathleen Sebelius will be a fine secretary of Health and Human Services, but President Obama needs to also utilize Governor Howard Dean, who revitalized the Democratic Party and helped Obama get elected. Why not put Dean in the White House as the Health Care czar that Tom Daschle was once to be (double duty was planned.)
Running HHS is enough to keep Sebelius super busy. It will keep her plate overfilled. Let medical doctor Howard Dean campaign for health care reform.
The administration faces a daunting goal: to get healthcare reform passed by year's end. Like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Obama is taking on healthcare at a time when Democrats enjoy majorities in both the House and Senate. However, we all know how that story ended. For this reason, Obama is looking for someone who not only understands the labyrinthine world of healthcare, but commands respect on Capitol Hill.
President Obama -- use that great brain of yours and see the wisdom in using Howard Dean, himself a doctor who has delivered on healthcare reform. As Governor of Vermont, Dean expanded healthcare coverage for children and pregnant women. When he left office, only 9.6 percent of Vermont residents were uninsured (in contrast, about 15 percent of all Americans are uninsured). Not surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal just listed Dean as one of the main contenders for HHS.
We hear that, as DNC Chair, Dean butted heads with future Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and other Beltway insiders. Why? They bitterly opposed Dean's 50-state strategy -- the farsighted blueprint that enabled the Democrats to retake the House and Senate in 2006, as well as made Obama's landslide victory possible. Well, what about the big tent of Obama? Is the tail (Emmanuel) wagging the lion (Obama)? If President Obama can reach out to Republicans, why not also reach out to Democrats who see things differently? Especially one that played a key role in your election. Dean was right by the way, and Emmanuel was wrong.
It is sad that some of the great Democrats who carried water for Obama, like Wesley Clark and Howard Dean, have been overlooked by the Emmanuel-driven White House. Where is the gratitude? Are you really utilizing the best the Democratic Party has to offer?
Howard Dean is exactly what Obama needs to get health care reform passed: a policy expert and populist who knows how to get things done.
Health care reform cannot wait. Please call the White House (202.456.1414) and ask President Obama to give Howard Dean the job of championing health care reform. Sebelius will need all the help she can get.
Running HHS is enough to keep Sebelius super busy. It will keep her plate overfilled. Let medical doctor Howard Dean campaign for health care reform.
The administration faces a daunting goal: to get healthcare reform passed by year's end. Like Bill and Hillary Clinton, Obama is taking on healthcare at a time when Democrats enjoy majorities in both the House and Senate. However, we all know how that story ended. For this reason, Obama is looking for someone who not only understands the labyrinthine world of healthcare, but commands respect on Capitol Hill.
President Obama -- use that great brain of yours and see the wisdom in using Howard Dean, himself a doctor who has delivered on healthcare reform. As Governor of Vermont, Dean expanded healthcare coverage for children and pregnant women. When he left office, only 9.6 percent of Vermont residents were uninsured (in contrast, about 15 percent of all Americans are uninsured). Not surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal just listed Dean as one of the main contenders for HHS.
We hear that, as DNC Chair, Dean butted heads with future Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and other Beltway insiders. Why? They bitterly opposed Dean's 50-state strategy -- the farsighted blueprint that enabled the Democrats to retake the House and Senate in 2006, as well as made Obama's landslide victory possible. Well, what about the big tent of Obama? Is the tail (Emmanuel) wagging the lion (Obama)? If President Obama can reach out to Republicans, why not also reach out to Democrats who see things differently? Especially one that played a key role in your election. Dean was right by the way, and Emmanuel was wrong.
It is sad that some of the great Democrats who carried water for Obama, like Wesley Clark and Howard Dean, have been overlooked by the Emmanuel-driven White House. Where is the gratitude? Are you really utilizing the best the Democratic Party has to offer?
Howard Dean is exactly what Obama needs to get health care reform passed: a policy expert and populist who knows how to get things done.
Health care reform cannot wait. Please call the White House (202.456.1414) and ask President Obama to give Howard Dean the job of championing health care reform. Sebelius will need all the help she can get.
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